Tampakan open pit mine, “Not worth it” – DENR’s Lopez

Gina Lopez, the new Secretary of Department of Environment and Natural Resources made her statement clear that she’s against the idea of compromising agricultural lands for mining pits.

The DENR chief said she will stand firm on her stance against any move to lift South Cotabato’s ban on open pit mining, Interaksyon reported.

Lopez said in a press conference that the site is Tampakan’s preferred extraction method, and the act is “horrible”.

“Tampakan is on top of hundreds of hectares of agricultural land, the food basket of Mindanao, and you want to put a 700-hectare open-pit mine? I don’t care how much money they give us. It’s not worth it. Who is making the money here and who is taking the risk?” she said.

However, she still guarantees due process will be observed in the review of licenses and documents issued for the project.